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Pastor Mike Sanders will be teaching from John 4: 1-14
No church should be of one ethnic group. Did you know the Bible tells us that when we get to heaven, there is going to be people represented from all different ethnic groups that are going to be in heaven worshiping together.
Are you ready? Yes, it’s that time. It’s hope worth having and we’re looking forward to an opportunity to be able to speak into your life through God’s Word today. We are going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 4 and we’re beginning a new study here on verse 1 through 14, how to love the lonely.
You know there’s a lot of lonely people and we think about the holidays. We just celebrated Thanksgiving and we think about other holidays that are coming up and you know sometimes holidays can be bittersweet because so many people are lonely.
They’re struggling. They miss someone in their life or maybe they just have burned so many bridges in their life that they just don’t have anybody in their life. And so we’re challenging each one of you today as we study scriptures and we look at the life of our Savior as He reaches out to the Samaritan woman.
How do we love that lonely person that is wrestling with so many things in their heart and how do we bring them into a real relationship with Jesus Christ? So get your Bible. John chapter 4 is where we’re at.
Notes, pen, cup of coffee, tea, whatever works for you. Let’s get into the study today. This morning as we examine this passage of Scripture I want us to learn how to love the lonely but before we dive into it I want to shoot out a warning to every believer this morning.
That the longer you live for Christ, the longer you love Jesus, there is a tendency to become disconnected with sinners and not know people. who are unbelievers and as a result you kind of project a self -righteousness in your life that somehow you are better than other people and as a result of that the unchurched the unbelievers the lonely people out there cannot be reached God cannot use you to reach that person because you have elevated yourself above them whether you’ve done it knowingly or unknowingly I do not know but know this that God has called us to get out of our comfort zone and He has called us to reach out to lonely people in this world so how do we do that and let’s keep it simple number one display the love of Christ in your life I want you to look at verse 7 because the Bible says there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water and Jesus saith unto her give me to dream When Jesus spoke those words to this lonely woman who was living immorally,
and she was an outcast, not only because of her ethnicity, and she was an outcast because of her behavior among her own people, they wanted nothing to do with her. But when Jesus said to this woman, give me to drink, he is reminding each and every one of us as we look at this passage, examine this passage, that God’s saving love has no limitations.
That God is reaching out to each and every person. That the love of Christ transcends all barriers that exist in this world. There are many barriers that exist that sometimes are created by mankind, they’re created by religion, they’re created by perceptions that people have, but the love of Jesus Christ transcends and shatters all the barriers that exist in taking the love of Jesus Christ to individuals.
So when I say to you this morning that if you want to reach lonely people, you really have to display the love of Christ in your life, those words are not only specific, they are strategic. And the reason that I say that, it is not sufficient for us to simply say that we love people, but we don’t do anything about it.
And there’s too many times that we talk about loving people and loving, hurting people and people without hope, and yet we’re not doing anything about getting the gospel to them. So I want to show you particular barriers that exist within our lives and even in our community and our culture.
that must be shattered if we are truly to display the love of Christ. If you really want to display the love of Christ, you must shatter these barriers that exist in our lives. Number one, shatter the geographical barriers.
Now let’s go back to verse 1. And the Bible, just again, we’re doing this for context and to understand what Pastor Mike is saying. And so to get you there, to grasp the depth of what God is saying to you, I want you to follow with me in verse 1.
I want you to put on your thinking cap. I don’t want you to just look for an emotional thrill today. I want you to dive into the Word with me. Verse 1, when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard, that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.
The Pharisees were constantly at battle with the ministry of Christ. You and I know that as we have studied the different Gospels together that the Pharisees despised John the Baptist and they despise the ministry of Christ and Christ himself and it eventually led to his crucifixion Now one time a member said to me pastor.
We feel like you give the Pharisees a bad rap And I said I’m not giving the Pharisees a bad rap I’m just proclaiming the Word of God When that’s why I’m taking you back to what I said to you earlier Jesus always afflicted the comfortable The Pharisees had become comfortable in their religion they had developed a man -made system on how you could achieve self -righteousness before God and you could be under the Delusion that’s by following their moral code that you would be okay with God and heaven would be your home And the truth is they were sending people to hell The truth is they were misleading people and their Jesus Christ was confronting that and in general the Pharisees in their system Were doing more to hinder the work of Christ the work of his prophets the work of his servants than any other group known to mankind So pastor Mike’s not hard Mike pastor Mike is truthful and I want to tell you that in verse 2 the Bible says that though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples and Here’s the issue that’s going on Is that as the ministry of Christ is on the rise for John the Baptist has already said that he?
must increase and I must decrease and so even John’s disciples were kind of struggling a little bit with the transition of Jesus’s ministry John the Baptist was a forerunner. He was to come to announce the great Messiah the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was coming and then on the inauguration of the baptism of our Savior, Jesus Christ began this great ministry of reaching out to people.
As a result of that, people were repenting, they were believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible says in the latter part of chapter 3 that even Jesus was baptizing. But in chapter 4 the Bible says that Jesus was not baptizing, he had delegated that to his disciples.
Why would Jesus do that? Perhaps maybe there was a concern in the mind of our Lord and Savior that some people were starting to think that they were spiritually better than others because they had been baptized by Christ Himself.
Maybe that Jesus recognized it was important to equip and enable his disciples. disciples to be able to carry on the baptism ministry of new converts and therefore it was essential that while they were under his ministry that he have the opportunity to train them and show them the power of baptism and living a life of obedience to God.
Maybe it was important that Jesus Christ helped his disciples understand the distinction that baptism does not save us but it is the beginning of our discipleship, it is the beginning of our journey of following Christ and being faithful to him and living an obedient life to God.
The reasons may be many but whatever it is, the Bible tells us in verse two that Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples. But then the Bible says in verse three that he left Judea and he departed again into Galilee.
So think about this, what are the circumstances surrounding that Jesus Christ would leave Galilee? A, the Pharisees are upset with him. B, John’s disciples are upset with him. And Jesus recognizes that this is not the time for confrontation, this is not the time to duke it out internally within the church and to duke it out externally with those who reject salvation by grace and grace alone.
So Jesus Christ, the Bible says that he left and literally the word means that he sent away. And in some context, this Greek phrase is used to dismiss, to dismiss offenses or forgiving offenses. It is also translated as yielding up or letting alone or allowing or permitting.
So when we read this text and we look at verse three, it says he left Judea in a real sense. What Jesus is doing is that he’s saying, you know what, I’m gonna pick my bath. I’m not gonna have this fight right now.
I’m gonna let it go, I’ve got to move on because the church is getting frustrated and struggling with the rise of Jesus Christ’s ministry as he would be exalted and lifted before men and he would do his great ministry among so many and the Pharisees are ready to confront and they wanna extinguish this fire that is burning through the ministry of Christ that is bringing about revival and conversions and salvations.
Jesus says it’s time for me to move on and so the Bible says a startling statement in verse four, he must needs go through Samaria. Christ had a running battle with the Pharisees but he left Judea because he didn’t wanna get stuck and he didn’t wanna get wrapped up into fire.
foolishness and silliness and small squabbles, and therefore he wanted to stay on mission of what he was called to do. What was the mission of Christ? It was to seek and to save those that are lost. Now church, I wanna send out a warning to you.
I wanna send out a warning to you because the number one tool that the devil uses is to distract Christians. He causes defeat in the family of God by distracting us from the mission of God. He causes us to start battling within, fussing within, finding fault within, and struggling with each other within, and we let our egos take over, and we lose our focus on why we’re here, what God has called us to do,
and we get wrapped up in who is gonna get the credit and who’s gonna be exalted and who’s gonna be the boss and who’s gonna run this and who’s gonna run that, and I’m telling you, my friends, every time the church gets wrapped up into that, it forgets why God has left us here.
God has not called us to fuss over silliness and to fuss over little stuff. He has called us to stay on mission for him and to stay driven of getting the gospel out to each and every person, because as I stated to you earlier, the hope of the world is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says that Jesus must needs. That means that Jesus was driven divinely, that there was a compelling compulsion within Christ. He understood the necessity arising from the Father’s will of his mission and what his calling was in his life that he needed to avoid the conflicts and stay focused on what God had called him to do.
And my friends, many times I’ve seen Christians get distracted and they forget about the Father’s will. They forget about what the true mission is. Jesus was driven by this mission, and this is one of the ways that he displayed the love of Christ, is that rather than getting wrapped up in squabbles, he stayed on mission.
But the Bible says in verse 4, he must needs go through Samaria. He was on mission in not only what he left behind, but what he was going towards. Jesus Christ was on mission. He recognized that he had a divine appointment in his life.
Why would you say that, pastor? Because the Jews avoided contact with Samaritans at all costs. Now, for where Jesus was headed to, it was a more direct route for Him to go through Samaria. Certainly, that was true.
But the Jews, unwilling to even step foot on the grounds of a Samaritan, and the Jews, unwilling to have any communication or contact with a Samaritan, always went another direction. They would go up north and out of their way, and they would add miles to their journey so as long as they did not have to have any contact with Samaritans.
But Jesus Christ decided that He was going to tear down all geographical barriers, that even though He would be condemned and He would be maligned and mischaracterized, Jesus went out of His way to reach this woman.
And Jesus was displaying His love for sinners just by the journey that He took through Samaria. Jesus Christ shattered geographical barriers, and I wonder today how many of us would be willing to go a different route, and we would be willing to take a detour to stay on mission for God.
I wonder today how many of us really recognize that every day of your life that God has divine appointments for you, that God is putting people in your path. He is bringing people into your circle of influence.
He is bringing people in your way for a purpose. And that your calling is not to find fault with them, but your calling is to reach out to them and to share the love of Jesus Christ with them. How many of us are willing to say, look, that’s not my normal route, and that’s not normally what I do on the way to church, but you know what, I’m going to go out of my way, pick up this person because they need a right.
to church, and I want to make sure that they get to church and Sunday school this morning. How many of you are willing to say, you know what, it’s going to cost me a little bit more gas and a few more miles, but I’m willing to go out of my way for somebody to reach them for Christ?
The truth is, can I be honest with you, in American Christianity, if the pastor doesn’t do it like the way the people want it, then we’re not coming, we’re leaving. Because most churches are what I call a consumer mentality.
Most Christians, it’s all about me. And when they come, when new people come to me and are interested in joining our church, can I be honest with you? They don’t say to me, what can we do for the church?
They say, what can the church do for me? Now, partly, it’s the blame. The leadership has allowed it. But most people are so self -centered, even in the faith. What do you have? What do you have for me?
What is your youth group like? What is your children’s ministry like? Not ever believing or thinking that maybe God might actually call you to a ministry to help start a youth group, to help start a children’s ministry.
No, it’s all about us. And if you don’t already have this high -powered whatever ministry that you want, it’s all self -centered. It’s like, hey, this consumer mentality, and if you’ve got this for me, then I’ll be there.
But as soon as the Twinkies are gone and the Ho -Hos are gone, we’re out of here. And so this concept that pastors teaching that we would actually go out of our way to reach lost people, we won’t even go out of our way to take our kids to Sunday school.
We won’t even get up an extra hour to make sure our children are under the teaching of the Word of God. We find it difficult to come to Sunday night and Wednesday night and to be a part of Bible studies and small groups and Sunday school classes because that’s just asking a little bit too much out of us, pastor.
And now the pastor’s saying, would you inconvenience your life to reach people for Christ? It might cost you some time. It might even cost you some resources. But how many of you are really ready to display the love of Christ in your life that you are so ready that you’re even willing to shatter the geographical barriers that exist and sometimes limiting you from reaching someone?
How many of you are ready for a breakthrough? The second way that we display the love of Christ in our life is by shattering racial barriers. Now, you need to put on your seatbelt because I got some tough words.
By the time that Jesus Christ was ministering, the Samaritans were despised by the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, the Samaritans were considered by the Jews to be half -breeds. They were looked down upon because they were a combination of Gentiles and Jewish relationships.
The Jews had become so nationalistic in their mentality that anybody who was not purely Jewish was somehow inferior. As a matter of fact, the Jews in their writings many times believed that Samaritans were worse than Gentiles.
The hatred was also mutual. The Samaritans hated the Jews, and the Jews hated the Samaritans. And the Jews believed that a Samaritan was not even worthy of being reached out to or discipled. As a matter of fact, you remember when we studied the gospel of Luke chapter 9, Jesus had gone to a Samaritan community.
He had preached the gospel in Luke chapter 9, verse 51 through 55. They did not respond well to the teaching of Christ, and James and John were so angry at the Samaritans. They asked Jesus, would you like us to call down fire on them to destroy them?
That’s how much they hated the Samaritans. But you know what? The church can be just the same. Is that there are many times that racism has infiltrated the church. I know this is uncomfortable, but I’m here to tell you that racism is projecting inferiority, status or worth onto other people because of their ethnicity.
To say that somehow someone is lesser of a person than you because of their skin color is in direct contradiction to the Word of God. I want you to know that there is not a person on this planet that God does not love.
That every person is created by God, and it doesn’t matter what our skin tone is. It doesn’t matter what our background is. God is reaching out to the world, and He is calling us to display the love of Christ in our life.
And friends, you are not truly displaying the love of Christ until you are willing to shatter racial death. barriers. Until you are willing to step out of sight of your comfort zone, no church should be of just one color.
No church should be of one ethnic group. Friends, when we get to heaven, did you know the Bible tells us that when we get to heaven we are gonna worship God Almighty amongst a group of people who are gonna come from all nations, all people groups.
Literally the word nation in the Greek is ethnos, which we get our English word ethnic. And so literally what God is saying is that there is going to be people represented from all different ethnic groups that are gonna be in heaven worshiping together.
Amen. You can clap. I’ll help you. And yet… So many times, the most divided time in the church is on Sunday morning. These barriers must be torn down. It doesn’t matter who you are. God loves you. God is reaching out to you.
It is the responsibility of Christians to bust down those racial barriers, to quit putting people down because of their skin color and their ethnicity, and to recognize that they are a person who’s beautifully created in the image of God, and they are to be reached for the cause of God.
And Jesus Christ specifically went to Samaria, a people who were hated by the Jews, and the Jews considered them even lower than the Gentiles. The Jews had become so superior and prideful in their own ethnicity, and their own nationalism, that they talked down to people, they looked down on people, and they refused to show the true love of God to people who were in desperate need of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have to shoot out another warning to you, church. Be careful of the political nationalism that is permeating our country. Nobody loves America more than Mike Sanders. Nobody is more patriotic than Mike Sanders.
And I believe that this nation is a great nation because of its foundation upon the Word of God, and I believe it is a blessed nation because of its support of Israel. But listen, Americans are no better than anyone else.
The ground is level at the foot of the cross. And I am not a better person because I’m an American. I am not somehow superior. Make sure grandparents, make sure that you do not teach your children that somehow because you’re American, you’re better than someone else who comes from a different nation.
that somehow because you’re Caucasian or you’re white, that you’re better than somebody else from a different nationality or ethnicity or color of skin. Friends, God forbid that that should ever be taught in the church, but the church needs to confess her sins because I have sat across the table with preachers who have spoken very racist words and I have listened to preachers make statements about people of different ethnicity and I’m telling you that it is wrong and sinful to God Almighty.
There is no one who is inferior before our God. If they are created in the image of God, they are equal and it is time that Christians. Stand up and speak up about these things And it’s not just here it should be across the board people have literally Hear me.
I’m not speaking out of emotion I’m very fact driven Okay But people have left our church and They’ve come and told me Because they don’t like that our music directors of black man Thank you. And so, what I’m trying to say to you is that it is prevalent, people who claim they love Jesus, people who say they follow Christ, and I’m telling you as a pastor, I tell them hit the door.
Well, I think that when we look at the woman at the well, we see she certainly personifies so many people, and it might be you that she personifies in the sense that you identify with her because you understand her emotions, you understand what she’s dealing with, and maybe you’re ready.
Jesus has spoken into your life, and he is calling you, he’s drawing you, and his word is very clear to you, and he’s calling you into true salvation. We invite you today to not resist him, but to receive him.
For as many as receive the Lord, they are called the children of God. And so, God is ready to forgive you, he’s ready to restore you, he is ready to change your life and give you a brand new start. But it begins with a humbleness in your heart and a willingness to receive it.
Christ as your Lord and Savior and a part of that receiving is being willing to walk away from your sin and to make things right with Jesus Christ and I hope you’ll do that today and I hope you’ll take those steps and if you do make that change in your life and you make that decision to follow Jesus then let us know go to hopewithhaving .com and hit our contact button let us know that today you’ve received Christ or today you’ve turned away from your sin and you’re ready to trust Christ as your Lord and Savior we know that will be a powerful time but also we want to send you information that will help you to grow in your faith and this opportunity for you to be blessed and encouraged in your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ so just remember that as we study together each week as we’re studying the book of the Bible that throughout the week we’re putting things on Facebook social media to help you to encourage you in your face so we want to reinforce what we’re trying to teach on the radio So take advantage of that by checking out our Facebook page and you just type in hope worth having you’ll go right to it and you’ll be able to like the page and then you can kind of keep up with some of the encouraging things and things that are going on in our ministry.
This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.